One Step At A Time
by Ashley C
Summary: Lily Evans, a little bit skeptical and a little bit confused about the wizarding world, enters her first year at Hogwarts. Includes 'young' grannies, wars over glasses, and more. R/R?


One Step At A Time  
  
*****-******  
  
Chapter 1- The Beginning of Everything  
  
******  
  
Lily Evans, aged eleven, stared around her in awe. The train station suddenly had new meaning to her. This train station was the start of everything new to her, and she just had the feeling that this train station was going to make her something special.  
  
Lily wasn't conceited, she never had been, she was just brutally honest and had these 'feelings' that usually came true. It wasn't exactly ESP or anything, they were just gut feelings that often led to the future. I suppose you can call it ESP if you want to, but Lily didn't think of it that way.  
  
Shaking herself out of the dreamland that she was in, Lily glanced again at her ticket. "Platform nine and three-quarters," she muttered to herself, removing her eyes, which were a rather violent green, from the ticket to follow the long line of platforms. "Nine," she said quietly when finally coming to it. She smiled, her vision sliding from the ninth platform to.....the tenth one?  
  
Lily did a double take, and looked again. Sure enough, there hadn't been a platform nine and three-quarters two seconds ago and there wasn't one now.  
  
"Lily, dumpling sweetheart!" her grandmother's breathy, Southern-tinged voice called to her. "Wherever did you get off to?"  
  
Dalia Evans, Lily's grandmother on her father's side, was sixty-one, but she certainly didn't act like it. Her Southern accent came from America, Louisiana more specifically, where she'd grown up until she was seventeen and moved to London to be with a man, Lily's grandfather. She still believed she was twenty-five and was always going up to men much younger than she was and flirting with them, wearing clothes way too revealing and way too young for Lily's taste. This was one of the many reasons Lily did not like going out in public with her grandmother.  
  
Lily's parents had died in a car accident when she was four, and Lily and her older sister Petunia had been sent to live with their grandmother. Lily barely remembered her mother and father, and what she did was slightly blurred at the edges.  
  
"I'm over here, grandma," Lily replied, emphasizing the 'grandma'. Sure enough, Dalia winced.  
  
"Don't call me 'grandma'," she said, shivering slightly. "It makes me sound so old."  
  
Lily rolled her eyes. "Petunia's right," she sulked, setting down her heavy Hogwarts trunk and sitting on it dejectedly. "This stupid Hogwarts place doesn't even exist. Let's go home."  
  
"Now, Lily," Dalia said. "I'm sure it does exist. No one would play a prank with that nice of stationary. Now, I'm sure there's a nice young man you can ask where to get on the platform."  
  
"There is no platform," Lily interrupted irritably. "Or else I'd be on it." But her grandmother wasn't paying attention to her. "Dalia?" Lily asked puzzledly, turning around.  
  
"Why hello, young lads," Dalia was purring to two young boys about Lily's age. "My.....daughter needs some help getting onto platform nine and three- quarters. Can you help us in our time of need?"  
  
Lily groaned and put her head in her hands. After a couple moments, she felt someone tapping her head. "Are you this woman's daughter?" the person asked. It was a male, of course. That was all her grandmother socialized with, apart from Lily and her sister.  
  
Lily looked up from her lap to meet brilliantly dark brown, smiling eyes framed by wire-rimmed glasses. She felt one of the feelings coming to her, but this one was different. She'd never felt this one before. Lily ignored it before replying coolly, "No, she's my grandmother."  
  
The boy grinned. "I thought so." He straightened and extended a hand. "Need some help?"  
  
"No," Lily replied. She stood up to proove it. "I am perfectly capable of standing up on my own."  
  
The boy smirked a little bit. "Independent woman, are you?"  
  
"Quite."  
  
"James Potter," he introduced himself, extending the hand again. After a few moments of hesitation, Lily shook it.  
  
"Lily Evans. Look, are you going to Hogwarts or not?"  
  
James grinned again. "With this luggage?" He motioned to his trunk and a cage that contained an owl. "Of course."  
  
"Are you going to make me ask it?"  
  
"Ask what?" James clearly knew exactly what she was talking about, however, because his brown eyes were twinkling.  
  
Lily bit her lip in frustration, tapping her foot a little bit. "How do you get onto the platform?" she asked finally.  
  
James's face broke out into a brilliant smile. "That's what I wanted to hear, milady!" he said jauntily, throwing his arm carelessly around her shoulders. Lily raised an eyebrow and removed the offending arm from her shoulders.  
  
"I'd thank you not to touch me so soon in our relationship," she said coolly.  
  
"Is that a promise that there's going to be a relationship?"  
  
"Don't count on it."  
  
"Just thought I'd ask."  
  
These remarks came out one right after the other. It was like watching a tennis match; Lily would say something, James would reply, then you would have to turn your head quickly in order to catch what Lily would quip back with.  
  
"James," his friend, whom Lily hadn't taken any notice to before now, whined. "James, are we gonna get on the train or not?"  
  
"Yes, Sirius, we are, as soon as we help......er........"  
  
"Lily," Lily supplied tiredly.  
  
"--get on the platform," James finshed.  
  
"Well, I'm gonna go," Sirius, Lily thought his name was, said in the same whiny tone. He gave a slight, two fingered salute to Lily. "Ta ta." And he walked quite calmly up to the barrier and.....and then he was gone.  
  
Lily turned, puzzled, to James. "Where'd he go?"  
  
"Dear Lord," gasped Dalia behind them. "I think he just went through the wall."  
  
James smiled an odd little half smile. "That's probably because he did. See, Lily, that's all you have to do."  
  
Lily turned to him, eyebrows raised. "You actually expect me to go through a brick wall?"  
  
"As a matter of fact, I do."  
  
"You're insane."  
  
"Only a little."  
  
"Don't say that."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"It--" Lily stopped. She was going to say, 'It makes you sound cute,' but she decided that that was not the best thing to say at this particular time. "It makes you sound ridiculous," she covered lamely.  
  
"And you're worried about that?"  
  
"Just nevermind!" Lily cried exasperatedly.  
  
At that moment, a very large group of tall teenagers, all laughing and talking loudly, approached the two bickering eleven-year-olds. The one in the front, a very handsome young man, stopped talked and nodded his head at Lily and James. "Look at this, crew," he sneered. "Two mini lovebirds."  
  
A girl who was hanging on his arm snickered. "Awwww," she said. "Isn't that sweet?"  
  
"Shove off," James said loudly.  
  
Instinctively, Lily grabbed his arm. "Don't do anything stupid."  
  
The guy in front raised his eyebrow. "Does your girlfriend have to hold you back, little boy?"  
  
"Does yours?" James countered, motioning towards the girl hanging onto the boy.  
  
"Nikki?" the boy asked, sneering. "Nikki's not my girlfriend."  
  
Nikki, however, didn't seem thrilled by the boy's reply. She removed herself from the boy's arm and tossed her long dark hair. "C'mon, Blake," she said. "Let's just leave the little ones alone."  
  
She pulled her trunk along with her and calmly walked through the barrier, followed by the group of girls that seemed to be her friends.  
  
Blake and his friends, however, hung back. "What's your name?" he asked James.  
  
"James Potter," James responded bravely.  
  
"You'd better watch out, James Potter," Blake said. "I'll be watching you." He walked backwards into the barrier, turning at the last moment to go through. His crowd of friends followed.  
  
"Asshole," James muttered, kicking his trunk.  
  
* * *  
  
"Agrippa," Sirius declared, tossing the Chocolate Frog card into the small pile on the floor.  
  
Lily unwrapped her own Frog and read the card. "Circe," she said, holding it up.  
  
"I have three of her," Sirius said lazily, laying down across five seats and balancing one of the cards on his nose.  
  
"Mmmm," James said, laying down too. "Me too."  
  
Lily sighed. "You guys are so boring!" she said exasperatedly. "Get up!"  
  
"I happen to be sleepy," James informed her matter-of-factly.  
  
"The feeling's mutual, man," Sirius agreed, yawning.  
  
Lily groaned and crawled over to James, taking off his glasses. "Mmmm, thanks Lils," he mumbled, rolling over.  
  
Lily grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back to her, making his eyes fly open. In that single second, brown met green and Lily couldn't look away. She inahled deeply, for she seemed to have lost her ability to breathe. "Give me back my glasses," James said softly.  
  
"No," Lily whispered back.  
  
He leaned closer, and for one wild moment Lily thought he was going to kiss her. Instead, he plucked the glasses from her hand and smiled cheekily. "Thanks, dear."  
  
James hooked the glasses into the front of his robes and settled down, ready to sleep.  
  
As Lily settled back on the floor, back to James's seat, she noticed she felt slightly disappointed. At what, she wasn't exactly sure, but she knew that it had nothing to do with the fact that James had gotten his glasses back.  
  
* * *  
  
"Ohhhh," Lily breathed once the majestic castle came into view. "It's beautiful!"  
  
"What is?" James asked, turning away from Sirius to look in the direction Lily was pointing to. "Oh, the castle? Yeah, it's cool."  
  
The three of them, joined by a boy named Remus Lupin, were traveling across the wide Hogwarts lake in a rickety rowboat that seemed to row itself.  
  
Lily hit James lightly on the shoulder. "It's not 'cool'," she said. "It's simply gorgeous!"  
  
"I happen to think it's cool," Sirius spoke up. "Don't you, Remus?"  
  
"As a matter of fact, I do," Remus agreed, smiling at Lily.  
  
Lily grinned warmly back at him. "Okay, okay," she relented. "It's cool. But it's gorgeous, too, okay?"  
  
"Absolutely," Sirius said in a sing-song voice.  
  
"Of course," James agreed.  
  
"Gorgeous and cool it is, then," Remus announced, grinning.  
  
Before anyone could reply, the boats started rocking back and forth, finally landing on the neatly trimmed lawns of Hogwarts. Lily stumbled out of the boat first, waiting for the boys to follow. Once they did, a rather large man led them up the stone steps to Hogwarts and after turning and smiling impressively, grabbed the large knocker and thumped it against the door.  
  
Since everyone else was silent, Lily could hear the clicking of shoes on a hard floor before the door opened, revealing a stern looking woman with raven colored hair that was pulled tightly atop her head. "I am Professor McGonagall," she told them, not smiling. "In a few moments, you will follow me into the Great Hall to be sorted. Hagrid, you are free to go," she added to the large man. Hagrid muttered a "Good-night," and retreated to the side of the castle. Lily watched him go for a few moments, then returned her attention to Professor McGonagall.  
  
"Follow me," the professor said, turning and walking down the hall. Lily did, and tried to mimic the way her new teacher was walking: head held high, long, striding steps that were full of grace, arms swinging slightly.  
  
Halfway through the hall, James grabbed her arm. "Hey!" she cried.  
  
"What are you doing?" he asked incredulously.  
  
"Walking."  
  
"You look like an idiot," he told her, grinning cheekily.  
  
Lily rolled her eyes, but walked normally after that.  
  
* * *  
  
"Alkin, Robert!" Professor McGonagall called, reading off of the sheaf of parchment in her hands.  
  
Lily held her breath, waiting to see something spectacular happen, but all Robert Alkin did was put on the hat and waited for it to call out a House name ("Hufflepuff!").  
  
"That's kind of stupid," she muttered under her breath to Remus, who was behind her.  
  
"Black, Sirius!" the Professor said loudly before Remus could reply. Sirius ran eagerly to the hat, jammed it on, and waited patiently about ten seconds before the hat shouted, "Gryffindor!"  
  
Remus shrugged, applauding Sirius. "I personally have reason to believe it's not," he said, eyes twinkling. "But I guess that's for you to decide."  
  
Lily groaned quietly. "I hate it when people talk in riddles," she mumbled.  
  
"It's not a riddle," Remus contradicted. "I'm just saying."  
  
"Damon, Kaitalyn!" Professor McGonagall cried.  
  
Lily felt her stomach flip-flop. It was almost her turn.  
  
"Ravenclaw!"  
  
"Dorien, Joseph!"  
  
"Slytherin!"  
  
"Edel, Christian!"  
  
"Gryffindor!"  
  
Lily felt her palms start to sweat.  
  
"Evans, Lily!"  
  
Lily gulped. Before she left, Remus whispered, "Good luck!" Lily smiled weakly at him, and slowly walked to the hat. After she reached it, she sat on the stool and put the hat on her head.  
  
"Good evening, Lily!" the hat said warmly. "Well, we'll get started. You're very smart, I can see that, but not quite studious enough to be in Ravenclaw."  
  
That's for sure, Lily thought, laughing to herself. She hated to study.  
  
"Yes, I thought you'd find that entertaining," the hat said. Lily was taken aback a little that the hat could read her thoughts, but she decided not to think anymore of it. "Well, you're loyal to your friends--"  
  
"What friends?" Lily thought scathingly.  
  
"You'll have friends," the hat assured her. "But again, you're too smart for Hufflepuff. That leaves Slytherin and Gryffindor. I've decided to let you choose. Which'll it be?"  
  
"Gryffindor," Lily decided.  
  
"Are you sure?" the hat asked.  
  
"If I wasn't, I wouldn't say it."  
  
"Then, it'd better be Gryffindor!"  
  
Lily removed the hat from her head and strolled jubilantly to the Gryffindor table, where Sirius was catcalling, and sat next to him. "Hi," she said breathlessly. Sirius grinned.  
  
"Welcome to Gryffindor, fair Lily," he said, ruffling her hair. "We hope you will enjoy your stay here."  
  
Still smiling, Lily smoothed her hair. "Stop sounding like a travel guide," she smiled.  
  
Sirius shrugged. "It made everyone else laugh."  
  
"You called everyone else 'fair Lily'?"  
  
"No," Sirius replied. "You're special." He tapped her nose and winked, returning his attention to the Sorting.  
  
Lily shook her head and returned to the Sorting as well. The hat had just announced that "Johnson, Carl," was to go to Ravenclaw.  
  
"Hobbleton, Trey!"  
  
"Hufflepuff!"  
  
"Hzinchenstien, Louis!"  
  
"Slytherin!"  
  
"Iozid, Lauren!"  
  
"Gryffindor!"  
  
Lily applauded Lauren with everyone else. She was pretty, with long, strawberry-blonde hair and a relieved look in her brown eyes. Lauren collapsed into a seat next to Lily and beamed. "My whole family was in Gryffindor," she explained. "I was so scared I was going to be in Slytherin!"  
  
"How come?" Lily asked, trying to be polite.  
  
Lauren shrugged. "I guess it's just everyone's worst fear coming here, isn't it?"  
  
"Not necessarily," Sirius said. "Oh, look, here's Remus."  
  
The three of them immediately turned to see Remus jamming the hat onto his head nervously, hands clasped in his lap. He twiddled them absently as the hat tried to make its decision. Lily held her breath and crossed her fingers, and then--  
  
"Gryffindor!"  
  
Lily let out the breath she'd been holding and beamed as she joined in the applause. Remus sat in the seat across from Lily, grinning sheepishly. "I'm so glad that's over," he said.  
  
"It'll be a while before James comes up," Sirius informed the group.  
  
"James?" Lauren asked.  
  
"Our friend," Lily said, speaking for the group. "See him? He's the really tall one, black hair, glasses...."  
  
"He's cute," Lauren blurted. She caught Lily's eye and they both giggled.  
  
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Oh, please," he mumbled. "I am much more attractive than Jamsie."  
  
"Memphis, Adrienne!"  
  
"Hufflepuff!"  
  
Sirius looked up. "Oooh," he said, smoothing his dark hair and plastering on a smile. "For a Hufflepuff, she's awfully cute."  
  
Lily rolled her eyes. "Get your mind out of the gutter," she scolded.  
  
"You should talk," he retorted. "'Ooh, James is soo cute!'" he said, putting on a high falsetto to imitate Lily. She punched him.  
  
"That wasn't me," she said. "That was Lauren."  
  
"Hmm?" Lauren said. She clearly wasn't paying attention, she was staring dreamily at James. "He's adorable!"  
  
"Pettigrew, Peter!"  
  
"Gryffindor!"  
  
Peter Pettigrew, a rather chubby boy with mousy brown hair and tiny, watery blue eyes stumbled over to the Gryffindor table, selecting a spot next to Lauren. "H-hello," he stammered, looking down at his hands.  
  
"Hello, chap!" Sirius said jauntily, clapping him a little harder than was necessary on the back.  
  
Lauren, on the other hand, was giving Peter a dirty look. Apparently the seat he was sitting in had been reserved for James. "Would you mind moving?" she asked Peter sweetly.  
  
"Where?"  
  
"I don't know. Try by Remus or something. This seat's taken."  
  
"Who's Remus?"  
  
"Me," Remus said, raising a hand. "Hallo."  
  
"Potter, James!"  
  
Lauren's head snapped up at the sound of James's name. Lily could see her eyes practically pleading with the Sorting Hat to be in Gryffindor.  
  
Sure enough: "Gryffindor!"  
  
James strode happily over to the table, missing Lauren's signals to sit with her, and plopping down next to Remus. He flashed a grin. "Good job, crew," he said to Lily, Sirius, and Remus. "Who're you?" he asked, directing the question towards Peter and Lauren.  
  
"Lauren Iozid," Lauren blurted breathlessly. She stuck out her hand for him to shake anxiously across the table, knocking over an empty goblet. She ignored this, however. James, looking a bit smothered, shook her hand briefly.  
  
Lily was caught between giggling and rolling her eyes. She settled for a strained smile.  
  
Halfway through the Welcoming Feast, as Lily later learned it was called, James caught her attention and beckoned her closer to him. She leaned across the table and whispered, "What?"  
  
"Your friend, Laura-"  
  
"Lauren," Lily corrected automatically.  
  
"Yeah, her. What's wrong with her?"  
  
Lily giggled. "She's got the hots for you."  
  
James looked baffled. "What?"  
  
Lily rolled her eyes. "She thinks you're adorable. Why, I have no idea."  
  
James puffed out his chest. "I know," he grinned. "It's my animal magnetism."  
  
Lily, who had just taken a drink of pumpkin juice, sprayed it across the table. She wiped her mouth and promptly began to have a giggling fit. James glared at her; she'd gotten him a bit wet. "What?"  
  
"Animal magnetism," she managed to choke out through her giggles. "You!"  
  
By now everyone at the Gryffindor table was watching this little exchange. "I thought it was a perfectly good reason," James huffed, stuffing some pumpkin pie into his mouth.  
  
Sirius, who had a spoonfull of peppermint ice cream halfway to his mouth, stared at his friend and Lily, shocked. "Dude," he said finally, dropping the spoon into the tureen he'd gotten it from. "What are you talking about?"  
  
Lily and James exchanged looks, and James finally spoke for the both of them. "Nothing you'd be interested in," he said firmly.  
  
* * *  
  
"So, do you think James likes me?" Lauren asked anxiously as she changed into her pajamas less than two hours later in the girls' dormitory.  
  
Lily hesitated a bit before replying. "I don't know," she said carefully, selecting every word cautiously.  
  
Lauren straightened up. "What do you mean? He's repulsed by me, isn't he? I came on too heavy, didn't I?"  
  
"I don't know," Lily repeated, feeling quite helpless. James had made it clear later in the dinner that his interests in Lauren were only as a friend, but Lily didn't want to tell Lauren that. It would devestate her. Besides, Lily reasoned with herself, once Lauren gets to know James, I'm sure she won't like him quite as much as she does now.  
  
Lauren flopped down onto her velvety bed. "I love it here," she sighed. Lily, who was glad for the change of subject, hastily agreed. "I mean, everything is just so homey, and I'm excited about my classes for the first time in my life." She giggled here. "I failed most of my classes last year," she confided, laughing.  
  
Lily, who had always been an honor student, couldn't see how this was something funny, but she smiled weakly with Lauren.  
  
Adelle Robinson, their roommate, cautiously entered the room. "Are you guys done?" she whispered. Adelle was a tiny, quiet girl with wild brown curls and large blue eyes, and she seemed to be afraid of everyone.  
  
"You don't have to ask," Lily said, smiling warmly at Adelle. "It's your room too."  
  
Adelle smiled back. "Thanks. I--" She seemed to stop herself, then picked up the sentence a little too cheerfully. "I'm awfully tired. I'm going to go to bed, if that's all right?"  
  
"Sure," Lauren said, yawning. "I'm a bit sleepy too. I think I'll turn in as well. Lily, are you going to bed, too?"  
  
Lily thought it over. "I think so." She climbed into her own bed and snuggled under the covers. "Goodnight," she said to Adelle and Lauren.  
  
Two "goodnight"s replied to her, and within minutes Lily heard the slow, even breathing of both of them.  
  
Silently as she could, Lily reached under her bed for her beloved diary, which had seen her through quite a lot. Even though she was only eleven, Lily always had funny, sad, or downright embarrassing stories to tell about in her diary. Stories about Dalia's many dates, Petunia's awkward boyfriends, the fuzzy memories of her parents, the countless times she'd tripped in the school cafeteria.....they were endless.  
  
Lily opened to a clean page and scrawled the date at the top and began fervently writing:  
  
September 1st, 1971  
  
Surprisingly enough, the Hogwarts place exists. Does it ever exist! It's a huge castle, with a lake, a forest (really- it's own forest and lake!) and Quidditch grounds. Quidditch, according to James and Sirius (I'll get to them later), is *the* best sport in the {wizarding} world. It has too many balls and hoops for my taste, though. I'm strictly a basketball player.  
  
James and Sirius. What to say about them, other than the fact that they'll probably be my best friends throughout school, which is kinda sad. I mean, I've never had guys for friends. I've been civil to guys, of course, all my life, but I've never actually been *friends* with them. But I'm getting at that age, I suppose, that guys stop having 'cooties' and start looking like handy companions.  
  
Oh, God, I just sounded like some sort of psychaitrist. That scares me.  
  
But what really scares me is that I don't know what to do about James. I mean, I guess I'm attracted to him. I don't really know. I just hope I get it straightened out and then GROW OUT OF IT. Because Lauren likes him.  
  
Lauren is another one of my new friends. She's super pretty, and she's really nice, but she's one of those girls who'll do anything to get a guy. That's kind of pathetic, because she's only eleven, but maybe she's more mature than some of us. I really don't know. I guess I'm going to have to find out.  
  
Looking over what I've just written, I realize that I don't know much about my social relationships right now. Maybe that's because they've only existed.....oh, about six, seven, eight hours? I'll figure all this out later.  
  
I guess I'm just going to take everything as it comes to me this year. That kind of scares me, because usually I have everything all planned out as to how things will work. I don't have a plan now.  
  
Some things in life, Dalia used to say, are better done unscripted. Maybe that's true. I really don't know.  
  
It's after midnight, and I'm really tired, so I'm going to turn in.  
  
Until later,  
  
Lily  
  
************  
  
A/N: That was kinda long. Longer than I expected.  
  
This is my first attempt at writing HP in, like, a year so forgive me if I'm a little rusty ;) Who knows?--I may have gotten better {::cough::doubtful::cough::}  
  
Oh, and on your way out? Leave a review. Please?  
  
~Ashley~ 


End file.
